E. M. Bounds in his classic little book "Power Through
Prayer", wrote, "What the Church needs today is not more or better machinery,
not new organizations or more and novel methods, but men whom the Holy Ghost can use - men
of prayer, men mighty in prayer."
Edward Payson was just such a man; a man mighty in prayer. "He prayed without ceasing
and felt safe nowhere but at the throne of grace. He may be said to have studied theology
on his knees. Much of his time he spent literally prostrated with his Bible open before
him pleading the promise; "I will send the comforter and when He, The Spirit of Truth
is come, He will guide you into all truth." Payson's advice to his fellow ministers
was, "prayer is the first thing, the second thing and the third thing necessary to a
minister. Pray then my dear brother, pray, pray." It has been well said that the
secret of Edward Payson's ministry was that he prayed much in secret. The scars on his
bedroom floor testify to this fact. Next to Payson's bed where deep grooves in the
hardwood floor were his knees had pressed repeatedly in times of travail.
To read "Praying Payson's" diary is to be touched by his heart longings and
tender love for Jesus and the lost. On January 4, 1807, he wrote, "I was favored with
a spirit of prayer beyond all my former experience. I was in great agony and wrestled both
for myself and others with great power. God seemed to bow the heavens and come down and
open all His treasures, bidding me, take what I would."
January 29th, "I never felt such longings after God or such a desire to depart to be
with Christ. My soul thirsted for more full communion with my God and Savior. I do not now
feel satisfied as I used to with the manifestations of the divine presence, but still feel
hungry and craving." February 18, "I was enabled to lie at Jesus' feet and to
wash them with the tears of contrition. No pleasure I have ever found in the Christian
life is superior to this." February 28, "I was favored with great enlargement in
prayer. I seemed to be carried out of myself into the presence of God."
Like all true men of prayer, Payson understood the need for true humility. "It was
the burden of his secret prayers that he might be delivered from pride, from self-seeking,
from preaching himself instead of Christ Jesus the Lord." Through humility and
fervent prayer he was always in hopes of seeing a fresh wave of revival. "The
revivals which took place under his labors where numerous and where characterized by a
depth and power seldom seen." Often Payson congregation was overwhelmed with a sense
of Christ's presence and power and irresistibly brought to tears. Mr. Payson's diary
testifies of the power and necessity of prayer for revival. September 27th, "In the
evening I was favored with great faith and fervency in prayer. It seemed as if God would
deny me nothing, and I wrestled for multitudes of souls, and could not help hoping there
would be revival here." September 28, "I was favored with the greatest degree of
freedom and fervency in interceding for others. I seemed to travail in birth with poor
sinners and could not help hoping the God is about to do something for His glory and the
good of souls." Within days, "Praying Payson" saw his prayers answered
through a fresh work of revival power.
On April 23, 1808, Edward Payson wrote, "My heart seemed ready to break with its
longings after holiness." Such longings for heart purity, revival power and the
person of Jesus are the marks of a healthy and normal Christian life. The lack of these
precious things in the modern Church reveal a nominal Christian life. Too much of what is
called the Church today is not fit to live or die. The nominal Christian is unfit to deal
with our demon possessed age or the coming judgment seat of Christ. Truly the Church's
greatest need is for men and women, mighty in prayer. We need men and women who will pray
and yearn for revival. Lord make us a praying people!
References Used:
Memoir, Select Thoughts and Sermons of Rev. Edward Payson Compiled by Asa Cummings
Touching Incidents and Remarkable Answers to Prayer by S. B. Shaw
Power Through Prayer by E. M. Bounds
From: A Revival Source Center